Congratulations to the Neighborhood Academy!

The Neighborhood Academy is the 2010 Peace Partner Award Recipient for its peace building contributions to Youth Services! The Academy is being recognized for its "long standing commitment to developing the mind, body and spirit of students and for working to break the cycle of poverty and violence."

The Peace Partner Awards are part of the Center for Victims of Violence and Crime's (CVVC) Peace-It-Together Community Initiative (PITCI). The Peace Partner Awards honor those persons and organizations who, through their work or service, help individuals, families, and communities heal from violence and crime and who embody the spirit of PITCI by resolving conflict, restoring relationships, and building peaceful communities in the Greater Pittsburgh Region. The Neighborhood Academy was nominated by Diana Wood, who coordinates Sixth's lunch brigade volunteers at the Academy.

The 2010 Peace-It-Together Community Initiative Reception and Peace Partner Awards Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 from 5:00 – 7:30 PM at the Regional Enterprise Tower in downtown Pittsburgh.

Highlights from December Meeting

The peacemaking overture to General Assembly for which 6th was a cosponsor was passed at the Pittsburgh Presbytery level.... The panel discussion held at the seminary on the role of faith in our stance on the death penalty drew a small but interested audience..... CROP Walk contributions increased by 10+% from last year....The Neighborhood Academy has been nominated for a Peace Partner Award through the Center for Victims of Violent Crimes.... Concerned action and awareness on the situation in Braddock/closing of the UPMC hospital there goes on (the Tribune-Review has been a good partner in keeping this in front of the public eye)....Next lunch at the Neighborhood Academy is February 4th....Volunteers at Global Links are having *fun* while doing good! -- and the high level of participation has earned 'points' that may enable 6th to send medical packets to Nicaragua as part of our developing relationship with the community of El Porvenir....The Committee is interested in learning more about anti-sweatshop legislation; the law was initially introduced as the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act..... The June 2010 mission trip will be an exciting and challenging opportunity for adults at Sixth!

Special Offerings

At Connie Hunter's request, we ran a short notice in the bulletin earlier this month to let new members or visitors of Sixth know that we do participate in the Presbyerian Peace offering, but that we do so in May (many congregations collect the Peace offering during World Communion Sunday at the beginning of October).

I thought it might be useful to include here on the blog the 'special offerings' agreement that the Church & Community Committee presented to Session last year. This schedule was approved by Session and is our congregation's current practice.
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We recommend that the Church and Community Committee assume oversight of our church's special offerings. To implement this responsibility for the year 2007 we recommend the following:

That the One Great Hour of Sharing focus should occur between the dates of March 4 and April 8 (Easter) and that Jane Fox will oversee this offering with regard to the ordering of materials and various forms of publicity;

That the Peace Offering should be collected between May 13 and 27 and that Nora Johnson will oversee the process;

That the Joy Offering should be collected between December 9 and 23 and that Diana Wood will oversee the process; and

That special offerings in support of the Lazurus Fund should occur on the four Sundays of the year 2007 which are 5th Sundays in the months of April, July, September, and December. Dave Wood will oversee this process and decide on publicity and procedures for dealing with this offering.